A geyser does not usually fail politely. It fails as water through a ceiling, and the damage in the first hour is mostly decided by two taps and a switch - not by how fast a plumber arrives.
This guide is the order to do things in. Read it now if you can; the worst time to learn where your stopcock is, is while standing under a leak.
Water off first, at the geyser or the main
A compliant geyser has its own isolating valve. If you cannot find it or it will not turn, go to the property's main stopcock.
Then power off, at the DB board
An empty or emptying geyser with the element still live is a second problem on top of the first. Switch it off at the distribution board, not at a wall socket.
Photograph before anyone touches it
The tray, the pipework, the ceiling, the water. Two minutes now is the difference between describing damage and showing it.
Then call - and say it is a geyser
It changes what the plumber brings. A replacement is a different van-load from a valve repair.
The order, and why it is that order
Close the geyser's isolating valve
SANS 10254 requires one, so a compliant installation has a valve that shuts off this geyser without shutting off the house. It is usually near the geyser, on the cold inlet.
If you cannot, close the main stopcock
This kills water to the whole property. Inconvenient, and far better than the alternative. Find it now, before you need it - usually at the boundary or where the supply enters.
Switch the geyser off at the DB board
Do this after the water, not before. A geyser that keeps heating while draining can damage its element, and you want the circuit dead before anyone works on it.
Photograph everything, then move what you can
Ceiling, tray, pipes, floor, and anything getting wet. Then lift what is portable out of the way. Both take minutes and neither can be done retrospectively.
Call, and lead with 'geyser'
Say whether it is leaking or has burst, roughly how old it is if you know, and whether the water is now off. That is enough for someone to arrive with the right parts.
Why some geysers flood a ceiling and others do not
The difference is usually the drip tray. SANS 10254 requires a tray under a geyser installed in a roof space - and requires that tray to have an outlet that discharges somewhere sensible.
A tray with no outlet, or an outlet that discharges into the ceiling void, is decoration. It buys you a few litres and then overflows into exactly the place it was supposed to protect. This is the single most common compliance failure a homeowner can check without any tools.
Go and look at your tray nowRecommended
Is there one? Does a pipe leave it? Does that pipe go outside, where you would see water running? If the answer to any of those is no, you have found a problem worth fixing on a dry day.
If you are the plumbing business, not the customer
Geyser work is where urgency lives in this trade. In our own request data, geysers are 4 of the 7 same-day emergencies while gas - the larger category overall - is 1. Being reachable and equipped for a geyser call is worth more than being reachable in general.
Ask whether the water is off before you leaveRecommended
It changes the urgency of the drive and tells you what you will be walking into. It is also the most useful thing you can do for the customer before you arrive.
Common questions
Water is coming through my ceiling. What do I do first?
Close the geyser's isolating valve, or the property's main stopcock if you cannot find or turn the isolating valve. Then switch the geyser off at the distribution board - water first, then power. Then photograph the damage before anything is moved or repaired, and then call a plumber and tell them it is a geyser.
Should I switch the electricity off before the water?
Water first. A geyser that keeps heating while it empties can damage its element, and shutting the water off is what actually stops the damage to your home. Then switch the circuit off at the DB board so the geyser is dead before anyone works on it.
There is water coming out of a pipe on the roof. Is that the burst?
Not necessarily. A discharge from the temperature and pressure safety valve is that valve doing its job - relieving pressure. It can also indicate a fault worth investigating. Either way, do not interfere with that valve while the system is hot and pressurised.
Why did my geyser flood the ceiling instead of draining away?
Most often because the drip tray had no outlet, or its outlet discharged into the roof space rather than somewhere you would see it. SANS 10254 requires a tray with an outlet for a geyser in a roof space, and a tray that drains nowhere fills up and overflows into the ceiling it was meant to protect.
Will my insurance cover this?
That depends on your policy and we are not going to guess at it. What is worth doing regardless is photographing the damage before anything is moved, and keeping the plumber's invoice and any certificate together with your geyser paperwork. Those are the things you will be asked for, whatever the answer turns out to be.
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